Cape West Coast

Highlights

About

This exquisite, isolated stretch of land along the west coast of South Africa is one of its richest and most prized natural areas. Breathtaking mountain ranges are constant travelling companions along the Winelands and West Coast routes. The magnificent, brooding peaks, crags and unusual rock formations and caverns were canvases for the San and Khoi people, who left lyrical rock paintings documenting their lives and spiritual experiences of the land.

The mountains now attract rock-climbers and hikers. The west coast’s cold, nutrient-rich Benguela current ensures that its Atlantic waters are teeming with marine life and its shores, although seemingly dry and grey out of flower season, nurture an incredible diversity of plant and animal life.

Unesco has deemed the Cape Floristic Region an area of such incredible biodiversity that the Cape Biosphere Reserve has been formed to protect the land from Milnerton to Velddrif.

The West Coast route encompasses both inland and seaside villages. Travelling north from Cape Town through inland towns such as Darling, Riebeeck Kasteel, Porterville, Piketberg, Citrusdal, Clanwilliam and Wupperthal leads past a series of mountain ranges and wilderness areas, including the Grootwinterhoek, Koue Bokkeveld, and the well-loved Cederberg. The route winds through vineyards, wheat fields, olive, citrus and dairy farms, and friendly towns that have a pastoral serenity.

After good winter rains, flower-lovers make pilgrimages to the west coast in spring (August to September) to enjoy the Cape floral region’s colourful splendour, which reaches its full brilliance in Namaqualand in the Northern Cape. Darling, Porterville, Clanwilliam and Hopefield are especially well known for their flowers and flower festivals.

Once sated with the marvels of the Cederberg, tourists can meander down the coast through fishing villages such as Strandfontein, Lamberts Bay, Eland’s Bay, Velddrif, Paternoster, Langebaan and Yzerfontein.

In the 1600s, Jan Van Riebeeck rejected the west coast as unsuitable for settlement because of the lack of fresh water and the area remained relatively undeveloped. However, in the past 15 years, fresh water supply has been ensured and tourism has boomed. Paternoster has maintained the aesthetic appearance and atmosphere of a fishing village, with whitewashed cottages and fishing boats strewn across its beaches, and is particularly popular with tourists as a result.

The west coast paints olfactory pictures as compelling as its beautiful scenery. Inland areas can be startlingly fragrant, with orange blossom, rooibos, fynbos and buchu, whereas the fecund, fishy, kelpy marine smells of the coastline are quintessential to the Cape.

Then there is the mouth-watering aroma of west coast rock lobster (crayfish or kreef) on the braai (barbeque) … and the stench of Cape gannet guano at Lambert’s Bay’s Bird Island. All the senses seem heightened in response to this area, perhaps because of its ancient wilderness.

The coastal towns have a much-vaunted Mediterranean feel and moderate temperatures that attract holiday makers and retirees. With blazing blue skies above, white sandy beaches underfoot and azure seas, you can feel as if you have been catapulted onto a brilliant Greek isle.

However, the west coast is different from the warm, easy going east coast, and can whip up a howling, biting wind, or set in with miserable rain and austere, desolate greyness.

Shell middens and Stone Age artefacts dotted along the coastline suggest that the west coast’s sea and mountains sustained early human life as long as 700 000 years ago and later supported the San and Khoi people. The Khoi began herding sheep two millennia ago and were well-established herdsman by the time the Dutch settlers arrived in the 17th century, leading to disputes over territory.

The Portuguese navigator, Vasco da Gama, is said to be the first recorded European to arrive on South African shores, near the Berg River mouth, in a bay he named Bahai da Santa Elena after the mother of Emperor Constantine the Great.The west coast is well-known for its shipwrecks, with Paternoster (“Our Father”) said to reference the prayers of Portuguese sailors.

The west coast has drawn waves of fortune-seekers over the years, with fishing, farming, whaling, guano, forestry and diamonds being among the major drawcards, but some of the area’s greatest assets have been nearly exhausted by human demand, leaving a number of conservation concerns, such as the scarcity of the renosterbos (Swartveld) and the near eradication of endemic Clanwilliam cedars.

After years of exploitation, the Cederberg Wilderness Area now protects these rare and endemic species as well as the Cape leopard, snow protea and the red and yellow Disa uniflora. Dainty antelope species roam the reserves, as well as baboon, tortoise, caracal, mongoose and bat-eared fox. Sunbirds and sugarbirds thrive on the fynbos.

Southern right whales enter the west coast’s sheltered bays from July to October in order to calve and can often be seen quite close to the shore. Endemic Haviside’s dolphins also roam the waters, as do dusky dolphins, great white sharks, penguins and Cape fur seals. The wetlands and estuaries in the region are a bird-watcher’s paradise, with tens of thousands of birds, including (in summer) northern hemisphere waders.

Look out for

Cape Flower Route – geologically, the region has remained relatively unchanged for five-million years, resulting in its unique fynbos and astonishing plant variety.

The 71 000-hectare Cederberg Wilderness Area encompasses famous rock formations (Maltese Cross; Wolfberg Arch and Wolfberg Cracks), caverns with fine rock art sites (Town Hall/Stadsaal Caves) and peaks (the tallest of which is the Sneeuberg at 2 028 metres). Streams, waterfalls and ravines and the amazing plants and animal diversity attract bird-watchers, nature-lovers and hikers who revel in the 254 kilometres of trails.

Langebaan Lagoon is the centre of West Coast National Park, known for abundant birdlife, beaches, the Postberg Flower Reserve (open from August to September) and Buffelsfontein Game Reserve, with resident black and blue wildebeest, bontebok and eland. Near Kraal Bay are the “footprints of Eve” - early hominid footprints preserved in the sandstone.

Cape Columbine Nature Reserve, known to Paternoster locals as “Tietiesbaai”, has the last manual lighthouse in South Africa.

The West Coast Fossil Park between Langebaan and Velddrif yielded a fossilised skull dating back to the Stone Age and showcases the ancient prehistory of area, including extinct animal fossils of toothy bears and tigers. Tours, mountain-bike trails, flower walks and coffee are available.

San Rock Art sites are a testament to the rich spiritual and community relationships of the San and Khoi and quirkily detail the creatures they encountered (even white settlers and ships). The Cederberg region has more than 2 500 sites.

When to go

To Do

Gallery

Events

Articles & Blogs

Go Straight to Jail

Eduard Cornelissen couldn’t wait to go to jail. He’d been plotting his break-in for years. And it wasn’t just any old jail he wanted to move into.

The thick walls of the 1895 prison in Vanrhynsdorp, on the N7 in the West Coast district, looked so promising to him. Built back in the day when strong men made things to last, its decline into decay over the years had saddened him.

The last prisoners were let out in 1938 and the cells remained empty until someone had the bright idea of turning the old prison into a museum and tourist...

Planting seeds for the future

The rugged Cederberg mountains have long been a playground for those who indulge in extreme pursuits. The dramatic range is criss-crossed by hiking and mountain biking trails while the sheer sandstone cliffs are Mecca for climbers. In fact Rocklands, at the top of the Pakhuis Pass in the northern Cederberg, is one of most famous bouldering areas (gymnastic climbing without ropes on low boulders) in the world.

RTD Check list

So many of us have been counting down the days till Daisies 2013 since Daisies 2012 but for those of you first timers who are about to embark on your first ever trip to Rocking the Daisies this will give you an idea of exactly how excited you should be, what to take and important things to remember…

Rocking the Daisies is already sold out with 15 000 festival frolickers and is an experience of a lifetime. With the organizers raising the bar you can expect some incredible international bands and local rock stars!.

Lamberts Bay

Perhaps a bit mean of me to be posting beach photos on a monday morning... hehe. This was my last stop on the West Coast, and the fishermen amongst us will surely recognise the main beach at Lamberts Bay. I asked the team from Eureka Accommodation where I could get a nice shot of the beach, and they led me into one of their beachfront appartments, which offer serious value for money with a view like this. This quaint seaside village gets surprisingly busy, especially when the snoek are around (as they were last week)... and don't forget Kreeffees! Just beware when the wind blows from the...

Cape Columbine Lighthouse

Built in 1936 this large lighthouse towers over the rugged and windswept Cape coastline and is usually the first lighhouse seen by ships travelling from Europe. With this area notoriously known for shipwrecks the lighthouse was actually named after the barque ‘Columbine’ that was wrecked along the coast in 1829. The lighthouse is situated in the Columbine Nature Reserve, 5km away from the popular tourist destination Paternoster, and camping facilites, hiking trails and kaykaing are some the some of the parks activites. Entrance fee into the park is R13.70 for adults and R6.90 children....